


Through darkness and silence, let there be hope

by stjarna



Series: 25 Days Christmas Romance Challenge and AoS Advent 2017 [13]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: AOS Advent 2017, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Jemma's POV, Sad, Sad with a Hopeful Ending, Season 5 spec, prompt: hope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 15:48:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13057134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stjarna/pseuds/stjarna
Summary: Written for theAOS Advent prompt "hope"A S5 spec one shot from Jemma's POV, post-5x04





	Through darkness and silence, let there be hope

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to @diklirani for the beta

Jemma sat on her bed. She didn’t know how long it had been since she’d seen Daisy. Since the telepath helped them, ensured their lies would match. Yet, Jemma wasn’t sure if their plan had worked to trick Kasius. He’d locked her in her room. Of course he wouldn’t let her anywhere near Daisy anymore. It must have been a few hours at least.

Her eyes filled with tears and she closed them, biting her lower lip to stop from crying. She tasted the gold paint on her lips and drew in a shaky breath she couldn’t hear. She pressed her hands against her ears, but she couldn’t stop the high-pitched ringing, the only sound that still existed, aside from Kasius’ voice when he broke through her silence. And in those moments, she wished for the ringing to return, to replace his cold, dismissive tone.

Her body began to tremble as the urge to let go, give up, sob until there were no more tears left became almost unbearable. She gasped, opening her eyes and clenching her jaw, trying to force determination back into her veins. But as soon as she noticed her blurry surroundings, as soon as she was reminded of her distorted, compromised vision, she shut her eyes again, slumping her shoulders.

 _There’s always hope_ , she’d told Will on Maveth. And she’d believed it. She’d held on to it. For months. For months she had hope. Hope that Fitz would find a way. Hope that she would find a way. Hope that they’d find a way back to each other. For months she held onto optimism, hope, the knowledge that Fitz wouldn’t give up on her and she wouldn’t give up on him. It took months. It took a message in a bottle crashing against the rocks of a canyon, bursting into thousands of glass shards to shatter her hope. Months. Months of darkness hadn’t been able to break her hope.

But here, now, in her present, in a future Fitz would never see, days of silence seemed to gnaw on her even harder than months of darkness had.

 _Time is strange_ , she’d told May. _Somewhere out there, Fitz is still fighting. But from our reference point, he’s lived his life._

_Or not._

Jemma felt a pang in her chest. She’d always considered herself a strong woman—independent, optimistic, hopeful, both eyes on the future and its endless possibilities.

Well, now she was here and possibilities weren’t endless. They had ended.

Their team had been separated again. She’d been enslaved, reduced to a servant, external beauty. Her mind only permitted to come through if it served her captor.

Daisy had been captured, about to be sold off to the highest bidder. That much Jemma was sure of.

The rest of the team. She had no idea where they were, if they were alive, if they were fighting, allowed to fight.

Fitz. He’d lived his life. Without her. Just like she would live hers without him.

 _I’m not strong enough to live in a world that doesn’t have you in it_ , he’d told her.

His words had pained her and filled her heart with warmth at the same time.

Now he’d been forced to live in that world he’d dreaded so much, and the fear that he hadn’t been strong enough became almost overwhelming.

 _This is not how your story ends_ , Daisy had told her as she huddled in a storage room, bruised and bleeding, Fitz torn from her, stolen, enslaved in a virtual world.

Daisy had been right then. It hadn’t been how their story ended.

This was how it would end.

The ocean hadn’t managed to do it. Distance they’d created between themselves. Space. Virtual worlds.

None of that had been strong enough to break their bond.

But time. Time was their enemy it seemed. Time would be victorious.

Jemma felt a tear roll down her cheek, but she didn’t care. She didn’t care that it would ruin her makeup, sending Kasius into a rage. She didn’t care. She was so tired.

 _Maybe I’m not strong enough to live in a time that doesn’t have you in it_ , she thought, and it shattered her heart.

She buried her face in her hands, sobbing, screaming through the silence and never able to penetrate it. She opened her eyes just a little, her hands shimmering back at her, blurry and golden. And she cried even more.

She gasped in shock, sitting up straight, when she felt the cool breeze of the door to her room being opened. She scrambled up, trying to back away from the masked figure standing in the doorway, but her legs hit the bed.

He stepped into the room, stretching out his hand, gesturing with the other behind himself.

Jemma glared back at him, the urge to fight boiling in her veins. Maybe she’d lost hope, but her mind wasn’t willing to give up yet.

He stepped closer, grabbing her wrist, and Jemma jerked her hand back, barking a “No” she couldn’t hear.

He stood frozen in front of her for a moment and the fact that she’d stumped him caused the ghost of a triumphant smile to flash across Jemma’s lips.

He reached for his helmet, pulling it over his head, and Jemma gasped when she saw his piercing blue eyes.

Her lips quivered, her face contorted, smiling and crying at the same time.

His eyes shimmered behind a curtain of tears as he extended his hand, palm-up.

“We have to go,” his silent lips spoke.

Jemma nodded, grabbing his hand. Her hope came rushing back, flooding every cell in her body, filling her mind.

The future hadn’t been the end of their story.

It was another beginning.


End file.
